First pill with digital ingestion tracker approved by FDA

By Claire Ricke
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November 14, 2017 @12:02 PM

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NATIONWIDE – For many people taking prescriptions daily can sometimes slip their minds. A new solution will soon hit the market with a digital system that tracks if patients have taken their medications for the day.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the first digital ingestion tracking system. The pill, Abilify MyCite, is equipped with a sensor meant to be ingested to track daily medication intake.

The creators say the product is intended to become part of treatment in adults for schizophrenia, manic episodes, bipolar disorder and depression.

“Being able to track ingestion of medications prescribed for mental illness may be useful for some patients,” said Mitchell Mathis, M.D., director of the Division of Psychiatry Products in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. “The FDA supports the development and use of new technology in prescription drugs and is committed to working with companies to understand how technology might benefit patients and prescribers.”

The pill is accompanied by a wearable patch that receives messages from the ingested pill. The patch then sends the data to a mobile application allowing patients to track their medication intake on their phones. Patients are then able to allow their caregivers or doctors to view the information online.

The warning on the box says children taking the pill have a higher risk of having suicidal thoughts. For more side effects read the press release here.